Michigan basketball coach John Beilein faces his former team, West Virginia, for the first time Saturday. Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com

NEW YORK -- If this game had occurred three years ago, things would have gotten weird for John Beilein.

After leaving West Virginia to take over the Michigan basketball program in 2007, Beilein had to watch several of his former Mountaineer players march to the Final Four under new coach Bob Huggins three seasons later in 2010.

"I was very happy for West Virginia, for those young men, the university and the state of West Virginia (during its Final Four run," Beilein said earlier this week. "There were so many people who were so good to me and my family during that time and I was very happy for them, because I know the passion there is for that basketball team and that state.

"We also had Michigan State in that same Final Four in Indianapolis, that was an interesting time watching those two teams play, but I lived through it and everybody's in a good place right now."

For the first time during his Michigan tenure, Beilein will face his old team when the third-ranked Wolverines (10-0) battle West Virginia (4-4) at 8 p.m. Saturday (ESPN) from The Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Beilein called the entire experience "unique" earlier in the week, but doesn't exactly see it as being weird now -- as all the WVU players he once coached or recruited are gone.

"If the young men that I had recruited were still there, then it'd be strange," Beilein admitted Friday. "I think (former West Virginia standout) Da'Sean Butler is on the bench (as a graduate assistant), and that's about it. Bryan Messerly, a tremendous sports information director, is still there.

"Other than that, there's not a lot of people that I really know."

Beilein said his personal demand for tickets for this game has been rather high, and he expects several members of his family -- and some friends -- to be in attendance for the game.

But those tickets won't be going to anyone from West Virginia, "my tickets are not for West Virginia people, just for friends and family."

Not surprisingly, Beilein hasn't discussed playing his former team with the players on his current club, but that doesn't mean the Wolverines are unaware of what a win would mean for their coach.

"It means a lot to us, we know he came here from West Virginia," Michigan guard Tim Hardaway said. "Everybody wants to win for one another, and that's key. Everybody (here) loves one another.

"Coach Beilein had a great legacy there, and he loves them still, dearly."

Beilein still has very positive memories of his coaching days at WVU, from an Elite Eight run to getting the opportunity to coach his son, Patrick (who is now the head coach at West Virginia-Weseleyan).

But he's at Michigan now.

And Saturday, the Wolverines intend to show everyone why, exactly, he left Morgantown for Ann Arbor in the first place.

"It'd mean a lot," Michigan point guard Trey Burke said. "I know coach is going to have a lot of family there, and alumni from both schools.

"It'd mean a lot definitely, for us and for coach. We're going to go out there and do what we need to do to get the win for coach."